María José Gandasegui is hopeful a new generation of drugs will cure her of the virus

María José Gandasegui was 12 when she began to suffer from prolonged
bouts of extreme fatigue. Her family had no idea what was wrong with
her, and people around her began labeling her lazy. She tried to make up
for it by spending extra hours studying at school.

She ended up with two university degrees, a PhD on 18th-century law, a
job as a court clerk, and three children, all of which she managed
despite long periods of exhaustion. Finally, at the age of 48, she
learned that she had hepatitis C, a virus that had been continually
eating away at her liver.

Now 66, the last few years have been particularly hard for
Gandasegui: cirrhosis, an encephalopathy caused by liver degeneration
that severely affected her ability to concentrate, and a liver
transplant followed by serious complications that put her in hospital
for five months, nearly killing her.